


Caught

by Lotto95



Category: Once Upon a Time (TV)
Genre: Angst, F/F, Fluff, Kissing
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-05-06
Updated: 2017-05-06
Packaged: 2018-10-28 20:03:33
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,380
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/10838424
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Lotto95/pseuds/Lotto95
Summary: Her vault. Her safe-haven. Her retreat. Until she finds the Evil Queen, with the last person she would have expected to see.Set after 6x02.





	Caught

**Author's Note:**

> A little one shot I found collecting dust. I hope you enjoy :)

She’d never felt herself shatter quite so literally. Regina’s legs wobbled. She tried to turn and run. Her blackened heart plummeted and broke. Her stomach tightened at the sight. Each finger trembled and she was acutely aware of a niggling through the fog in her brain, but she couldn’t connect the thought to action. Each hand grasped onto the walls, fingers scratching down the rough material in the vault as she stumbled back up the stairs.

The cruel laugh of the Evil Queen echoed throughout the vault and carried all the way into the sharpness of the night.

The wind slapped her face. Her chest heaved as she moved away from the vault, only slowing once the laughter had faded into the distance. Each eye burnt with unshed tears. It had been happening often. Since the split. So much buried pain had been dredged back up, but this was the final tip of the ice berg.

Emma flailed up and out of the vault, breathing deeply. “Regina wait,” she choked, desperately trying to catch up.

She swallowed at the thickness of Emma’s voice, but it did nothing to stop each tear drop from rolling down Regina’s cheeks. She stopped and her chest quivered, but she made no move to wipe the dampness away. A pair of strong arms wrapped around her middle, in the only form of comfort Regina could rely upon.

Boots stomped then stopped abruptly behind her shaking form. She couldn’t stop herself from shivering. No matter how tightly she squeezed her arms.

“Regina,” Emma whispered, daring to place a soft hand on Regina’s upper arm. One which Regina shrugged away.

Regina’s chest heaved. Gently, she closed both eyes, the moisture pooling at the tips of her eyelids. After a deep shuddered breath, she opened her glistening eyes and turned around. Emma watched her intently. Eye brows furrowed. Regina’s faced scrunched and she willed the rest of the tears to stay at bay.

Regina opened her mouth only for the slur of insults to get caught in her throat. She’d needed space and the vault had always been her safe-haven. Her fists had clenched when she’d initially thought Emma had brought Hook into the one place she’d never wanted him to set foot in. Then Emma had moaned. Regina had sighed then instantly clenched her fist at the audacity.

“Why?” fell from shaking lips.

Her voice cracked. Unable to say a single syllable. Biting the inside of her lip, Regina turned her head to the side, away from the vulnerability in Emma’s eyes. Even now, Regina wanted to pull her in close. To protect her. It only made it harder. Knowing Emma didn’t want that. Not from her.

“I don’t know, I don’t…”

Emma visibly swallowed then zipped up her leather jacket. Regina glanced in her direction to see her rubbing both palms together. There were goose bumps trailing along the surface of her own skin even with a thick coat. Emma must have been freezing. She mentally cursed at herself for caring.

“Just go back, just-” she used the back of her palm to brush away more tears, “just go back to her.”

“Regina, she got in my head, it just-”

“Happened.” Regina connected their eyes, “she had a hand down your jeans, Emma.”

Regina couldn’t tell if the reddening of Emma’s cheeks was due to the cold or not. Emma looked to the ground and crossed both arms tight around her chest. She lifted her shoulders high then let them sag in an over dramatic shrug, “it wasn’t like that.”

“No?” said Regina, biting back on a more sarcastic response.

She let her eyes bore down onto Emma. In a way which frightened herself. This part of herself was supposed to be gone. That part was still chuckling away mercifully in the vault. But no matter what Regina had tried to convince herself otherwise, the anger had never stopped seeping from the pit of her stomach. “Then enlighten me,” she spat, already feeling it festering and pushing out.

Emma took a deep breath and shuffled on the spot. Her eyes closed, “I was looking for you, that’s why.” She sighed and looked up. “I went to the vault, I thought after what just happened with the count, you’d be there.”

Regina felt herself sagging instantly at the mention of the kill. It’d been hours, yet the trembling of her hands had failed to stop. The ball of self-hatred had only expended. Even if the heroes had tried to convince her she’d done the right thing.

“The queen had been waiting for you, but as soon as I showed up she started saying these things. How I’d put him first, how I’d let my family down, how I’d let you down.” Her head bowed, “she’s right.”

“Em-”

Regina shut her mouth as quickly as it had opened.

The selfish part remained hurt over Emma’s unwillingness to lose him. Emma had fought hard for her happiness, so she could have a chance with a pre-destined soulmate. But there had been no choice, no second option. It had been Emma. It had always been Emma. She had cared for Robin, but it didn’t come close to the flame she had always felt when it came to _her._

“She got me all riled up, I barley even remember what she’d said, but I just, I kissed her.”

The words hung in the air.

One by one, they sunk in. Until Regina was drowning within them. All those times wondering if her feelings would be unwanted. She had received her answer. And though her body had turned numb, limb by limb she turned herself. The loneliness of sitting upon a worthless throne barely a blip compared to what she felt in that moment.

It had taken ripping herself in half for Emma to want her. Not her. Her other half. The better half.

Emma followed. Regina had expected as much. But then a hand gripped her arm, yanking her backwards and twisting her until she was crashing into waiting lips. It was messy, their lips were slanted and Emma had wrapped an arm around her waist as the other clutched her arm. Regina’s eyes were wide open when Emma pulled away and moved her gaze between the dilated pupils.

She dived back in, readjusting their position so their feet were facing each other’s and wrapped both arms around Regina’s slender waist. Regina’s back arched and her eyes fluttered closed not able to resist a second longer. Snaking her arms around Emma’s neck, she moaned and pulled her in close.

They picked up the pace of their exploring lips, mushing them together and slipping out tongues to run them along lips and slide them into wanting mouths. They kissed as if they had been starved.

Emma pulled away first, only to press their heads together. Her movements were sloppy and uncalculated, but Regina sighed in contentment. Her eyes remained closed, so it was only by the tilt of Emma’s head did she anticipate another brush of their lips.

When Emma pulled away this time, their arms still around each other, Regina looked at Emma who in turn, stared right back. “I want you. All of you.”

Regina stood dumbfounded. A half smile pushed up her cheeks, watery, but genuine. Emma placed a sound kiss to her lips, causing Regina’s eyes to scrunch then open instantly.

“You,” she repeated then lent in slowly. She kissed her again. Long and slow and the cold was completely forgotten. Regina chuckled into Emma’s mouth when the kiss didn’t seem to be stopping any time soon.

“You,” Emma repeated softly whilst their lips still touched.

Regina thought she’d never heard such a perfect word. She circled her arms tighter around Emma’s neck whilst Emma reciprocated and almost pulled her from the ground. They kissed into the cool night breeze, as soft flowing magic poured from them both.

Their magic continued to morph and push out and swirl around everything it could touch. Until, finally, Regina felt whole. She pulled away and looked back into those eyes. “You,” she whispered back to Emma, heart racing at the goofy grin she got in return.

The moment their lips touched again, the rainbow emitted and spread out across the town.


End file.
